With BAFTA winning and Golden Globe nominated James McAvoy (The Last King of Scotland, Atonement, X-Men) cast in the lead role for the new stage production of Macbeth, it only remained to see who would be playing the rest of the cast alongside him - namely that of 'Out, damned spot! Out, I say!' Lady Macbeth.
It has now been announced that Claire Foy (White Heat, Little Dorrit, The Promise) will play the infamous role, opposite McAvoy.
Joining them, to complete the cast, are Jamie Ballard (Macduff), Graeme Dalling (Donalbain), Lisa Gardner (Witch), Kevin Guthrie (Lennox), Richard Hansell (Ross), Forbes Masson (Banquo), Allison McKenzie (Witch), Olivia Morgan (Witch), Catherine Murray (Caithness), Callum O'Neill (Angus), Mark Quartley (Malcolm) and Hugh Ross (Duncan/Doctor).
Jamie Lloyd’s new production will be staged at Trafalgar Studios from 9 February until 27 April. This new adaptation of the dark Shakespeare tale will take Macbeth to a dystopian Scotland brutalised by war. Under a toxic fog, Macbeth begins his tormented struggle for power fuelled by ambition and paranoia.
Film and stage actor James McAvoy (Atonement, X-Men: First Class) will take on the infamous role of Macbeth next year when the Shakespearean tale comes to the London stage. Alongside his impressive film credits, James McAvoy has starred on stage in 2009 in Three Days of Rain (Olivier Award nomination). his other stage credits include Breathing Corpses at the Royal Court, Privates on Parade at the Donmar Warehouse and Out in the Open at Hampstead Theatre. For Macbeth, McAvoy will be reunited with Three Days of Rain director Jamie Lloyd. Macbeth will be staged at Trafalgar Studios from 9 February until 27 April.
On 9 February 2013 Trafalgar Studios will be transformed. Macbeth is the inaugural production in a season of productions to be directed by Jamie Lloyd in Trafalgar Studios, set to be the theatre destination of 2013.
Olivier Award winner Jamie Lloyd (Donmar’s Passion, Broadway’s Cyrano de Bergerac starring Douglas Hodge, Royal Court’s The Pride) directs one of the most exciting international film stars James McAvoy (The Last King Of Scotland, Atonement, X-Men) in this nihilistic vision of chaos, played out with breathless momentum and visceral passion.
Shakespeare’s darkest tragedy is re-imagined in post-apocalyptic separatist Scotland. In this toxic dystopia, mysticism and witchcraft are interfused with hallucinogenic drugs as Macbeth begins his crusade of pathological ambition. Spurred on by arrogance, paranoia and the eroticism of murder, his struggle for power explores the corrosive potential of the human mind and exposes the ugliness of a society brutalized by war and tyranny. Set to be the hottest ticket of the year.
Macbeth opens on February 9th 2013 and runs until April 27th 2013.
X-Men: First Class had all the makings of another brilliant Marvel film. It had the effects, it had the actors and it had the backstories to many well-known X-men veterans (not just Magneto and Professor X but also Hank McCoy and Mystique). And yet somehow it managed to fall flat. I didn't dislike it but I didn't love it. It wasted what it had bizarrely with too much plot. If it was the back story it might have worked but it played the leads against a wartime backdrop of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Holocaust, expanding on Erik (Magneto's) discovery of his skills just as his parents are taken away from him at a concentration camp.
Some amazing actors end up looking really strange. Kevin Bacon, who plays the evil Shaw, doctor at the concentration camps turned destroyer of the world, speaks so many languages it sounds odd and he just didn't work as a comic book bad guy. His right hand woman, Emma Frost (played by January Jones) looked like an extra from the Avengers in her all white leather get up and just didn't have the charisma that Mystique manages to pull off in the trilogy films in a similar role.
The saving grace though is the two leads. James McAvoy as Charles Xavier and Michael Fassbender as Erik Lehnsherr are mindblowing. They play the roles with depth and subtlety which many actors would have struggled with and their developing friendship is fascinating to watch. It's also lots of fun for X-Men fans to see a young Charles Xavier chatting up young college students with his knowledge of evolution and being rather protective over his luscious locks. It's compelling viewing seeing a young Erik battle with the completely understandable rage that has been festering in him since Shaw killed his parents and tortured him into developing his 'gift'. It explores the two characters opposite approaches to the humans, with one trying to appease and play nice and wait for them to come around and the other sick of waiting and already convinced they are the enemy.
For fans of the other films, there is a brilliant cameo that had me laughing and lots of in-jokes (namely about Charles' hair) but it does still make sense to those who haven't see any so don't worry if you're not all clued up.
The action sequences are impressive but for this film buff there was just too much plot, too much politics and not enough action. Still worth a watch.
